Watching too much television has long been associated with obesity, but new research published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests that what you watch might be every bit as important as how much you watch when it comes to packing on the pounds.

Testing on rats has shown that too much junk food may teach our brains to disregard the need for a balanced diet. Reduced self-control from eating bad food could chart a course to overeating and obesity that becomes increasingly difficult to deviate from.

Unhealthy foods and beverages are regularly portrayed in a positive light on children’s television programming in the UK, according to new research currently appearing online in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.